New Orleans School Returns To Local Control For First Time Since Katrina

Today, for the first time, a charter school board voted to transfer from the Recovery School District back to the Orleans Parish School Board.

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New Orleans School Returns To Local Control For First Time Since Katrina

When the Recovery School District was created in 2003, the directive was clear: take over failing schools, turn them around, then transfer them back to the Orleans Parish School Board.

But now charter school boards decide whether to transfer to local control or stay in the state-run RSD. Until now, no eligible schools have returned to OPSB.

But NOLA.com reports that Friends of King, which runs Martin Luther King Jr. Charter, decided today to transfer back.

Friends of King voted last month to stay with the RSD. But tensions over the student enrollment process led the charter board to reverse its decision.

This year 36 schools meet the academic criteria to transfer back to OPSB. The boards that oversee 20 of those schools have already opted to stay put. The remaining boards have until January 5 to make their decisions.

Support for education reporting on WWNO comes from Baptist Community Ministries and Entergy Corporation.

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This weekend New Orleans voters decide whether to extend and redirect a property tax to fund school maintenance. The measure seems simple: set aside money so schools don't fall into disrepair. But the millage vote reflects a power struggle in New Orleans schools.

Last month, a banner started appearing outside schools. It features a racially diverse group of kids, with crisp jeans and wide smiles. Each gives a big thumbs up. The accompanying text: Our children, our schools. Not a tax increase. Vote December 6.

School buildings in the Crescent City will become monuments to our differences instead of the beacons of learning they are supposed to be if New Orleanians reject a preservation program for educational facilities in the voting booth on Dec. 6.

It’s a funding conflict that mirrors power disputes around the country over whether the states, or local, elected boards should control schools.

Anything but a vote to pass the measure ignores what New Orleans children went through before and immediately after Hurricane Katrina.